As the world struggles with the COVID-19 crisis, everyone at NCKRI continues to send their best hopes that you and your loved ones are well. Until further notice, the NCKRI offices are closed and all staff is working from home. Our office phones should be forwarding calls to each person’s mobile phone, but if you have difficulty reaching anyone at NCKRI, please contact me directly through my contact information at the end of this message.

The virus continues to postpone, change, and cancel many meetings and activities. See the announcements and conference list below for some of these changes. We will send more as we receive them. Please follow instructions from your countries health offices (in the USA, www.cdc.gov) on how to stay safe and minimize the spread of this terrible disease.

Here is the latest news:

Various News

International Year of Caves and Karst: A Good Time to Plan

New Hypogene Karst Book Seeking Authors

·Message from the Bureau of the European Speleological Federation on the COVID-19 Crisis

Conferences and Meetings

·The 16thSinkhole Conference: New Call for Papers!

·ALCADI Conference: Postponed

·USGS Karst Interest Group Workshop: Postponed

·Frontiers in Karst, Sulfuric Acid Weathering Conference: Postponed

·ERIS 100 - The 1st International Karst Science Forum: Continuing with New Deadlines

Please contact the people and organizations listed below for more information, and feel free to share this message with anyone who may be interested.

George

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International Year of Caves and Karst: A Good Time to Plan

The International Year of Caves and Karst (IYCK) will be the biggest and most important speleological event ever, but only if you participate. During this time when many people are staying home, it is a good opportunity to begin or continue your planning for the IYCK. Everyone will need an uplifting year after 2020, and celebrations for the IYCK is a great way to spend 2021.

Many partners have joined us to teach the world about the importance of caves and karst. Visit the www.iyck2021.org and if your organization is not listed, and you planning events to support the IYCK, then send in your logo and website. To get involved, download the IYCK Planning Guide from www.iyck2021.org to learn all you need to know about how to join the IYCK.

The IYCK has incredible potential to advance speleology in many and great ways, but only if we all work together to make it possible.

George Veni, PhD

Executive Director, National Cave and Karst Research Institute (NCKRI)

and

President, International Union of Speleology (UIS)

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New Hypogene Karst Book Seeking Authors

In collaboration with the journal Frontiers in Earth Science, we are bringing together a selected group of international experts to contribute to an open-access article collection on:

Manuscripts will be peer reviewed, and if accepted for publication, are subject to publishing fees, which vary depending on the article type. A discount or waiver can be applied for and all applications are considered.

We collaborate with many leading universities making the Open Access publishing process even more accessible for authors. Click here to see whether your institution is collaborating with us.

Note for all authors:Please check the list of contributing journals/sections at the homepage and choose the most relevant section for your submission. All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted.

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Message from the Bureau of the European Speleological Federation on the COVID-19 Crisis

Within just a short time daily life in most countries of the world has radically changed as a result of the outbreak of the Coronavirus COVID-19. Cafés, shops and schools are closed, flights, holidays and activities of all sorts including events are cancelled or prohibited and some borders are closed for traffic. Close contacts with people must be significantly reduced or avoided and, in some countries, communities are placed in quarantine. All this to crack down on the spread of the coronavirus and in order to maintain the quality of our healthcare. These measures from various countries have an impact on the practise of caving/speleology in any form, no matter the size of caving parties.

Speleological Federations of various countries such as Austria, Belgium, France, Italy and Spain urge their members not to undertake any form of caving activities, including climbing, canyoning or diving and to stay at home. Not only to avoid contacts between people, but also to reduce the likelihood rescues, which will be an additional burden on already overloaded public and health services. Moreover, in various countries sport and recreational activities are prohibited by law for the weeks to come.

The Bureau of the European Speleological Federation FSE therefore strongly recommends cavers to reconsider their caving activities and events and keep an eye on the media because the situation changes every day. What is possible today will be prohibited tomorrow. Please respect the measures taken by every individual country.

The FSE Bureau hopes all cavers and caving organisations will have the fortitude to hold out during this difficult period to come and we hope to see you all safe and sound after this crisis. Make responsible judgments and act with common sense. This is not only for yourself but especially for the people around you.

Best wishes,

FSE Bureau members

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The 16thSinkhole Conference: New Call for Papers!

Dear Friends,

As previously announced, the 16th Multidisciplinary Conference on Sinkholes and the Engineering and Environmental Impacts of Karst (more commonly called The Sinkhole Conference) has been rescheduled to 12-16 April 2021 at its same location in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

This delay offers the opportunity for you to submit papers to present and publish in the conference proceedings, which will be published in two editions. The first edition will be released as originally scheduled in April 2020 and will include all the papers that would have been presented by the original conference schedule. But starting now, you can submit additional papers for publication and presentation at the conference next year. Those papers will be published in the second edition of the proceedings, combining them with the papers published in the first edition. Papers from the first and second editions will be scheduled for oral and possibly poster presentation in 2021.

Here are the deadlines for papers for the second edition:

July 24, 2020: Abstract due

July 29, 2020: Authors notified of abstract acceptance

October 19, 2020: Draft papers due

November 23, 2020: Authors provided with review and comments

December 21, 2020: Final papers due

Since 1984, the Sinkhole Conference has been the world’s leading conference on engineering and environmental management issues in karst. The conference proceedings are used and cited widely. Since 2015, NCKRI has posted the proceedings for free download on the Karst Information Portal where they are downloaded thousands of times each year, even back to 2015, from dozens of countries around the world. We hope you will consider presenting your paper at the Sinkhole Conference next year where your work will be shared and acknowledged internationally.

Due to the current conditions related to the Coronavirus pandemic in Italy, the realization of the symposium "ALCADI 2020", scheduled for dates 30 April - 3 May 2020, has been postponed to 5-6-7-8 December 2020. The abstracts already received remain valid but as a result we have set a new deadline for the submission of further work until 31 October.We will soon send you the modified detail programme. For more information contact: .

Best regards

Maurizio Tavagnutti

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USGS Karst Interest Group Workshop: Postponed

Dear Karst Interest Group attendees,

As you know the USGS Karst Interest Group was planning on having the 8th Triannual Karst Interest Group (KIG) Workshop in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, on May 13th-15th. The KIG Workshop was being coordinated with the UNESCO 2020 International Karst Conference: “CONSERVATION OF FRAGILE KARST RESOURCES- A Workshop on Sustainability and Community” <https://unescokarst2020.com/> which was scheduled after this workshop. The UNESCO conference is now postponed until August 17-20, 2020.

As a result, the 2020 USGS Karst Interest Group Workshop Coordinating committee is now also planning to postpone our workshop to August 2020. The exact date of the workshop is to be determined but may be either August 12th-14th or August 24th-26th, 2020 depending on venue availability. We are also looking into hosting a virtual workshop as an option.

We are contacting all registered to attendees now so that you can amend your travel plans. We will send out the specific dates for the rescheduled workshop as soon as possible. We will contact presenters soon with additional information regarding abstracts and meeting proceedings.

Sincerely,

Allan Clark

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Frontiers in Karst, Sulfuric Acid Weathering Conference: Postponed

The June 2-7. 2020 Karst Waters Institute conference entitled “Frontiers in Karst: Sulfuric Acid Weathering” at San Vittore, Italy has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Dates in mid-2021 are under consideration. You can follow the conference’s progress at: https://karstwaters.org/conferences/sulfuric-acid-weathering/.

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ERIS 100 - The 1st International Karst Science Forum: Continuing with New Deadlines

Dear Colleague,

Over the past few weeks, we have been closely monitoring and evaluating the situation around COVID-19, to ensure we are making the appropriate decisions regarding ERIS 100 - The 1st International Karst Science Forum, to be held in Bucharest, Romania, on 24-27 June 2020.

After consultation with our partners, the Organizing Committee decided to carry on with planning for the event, keeping the registration open while extending the abstract submission deadlines as follows:

New Abstract Submission Deadlines:

Abstract Submission by May 1, 2020 | Review by May 20 | Revised by May 31

Seeing that the Romanian Government has declared a state of emergency on 16 March 2020, we will continue to examine the situation as it unfolds and discuss further appropriate options, which may include postponement of the Forum.

We will keep you informed with updates. Thank you for your understanding in this difficult situation.

It is with great regret that the 23rd Conference of the Australasian Cave and Karst Management Association needs to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 virus. It was scheduled for 3-8 May 2020 at Jenolan Caves, New South Wales, Australia. Plans are underway for the next conference and other activities. For more information on these events, follow www.ackma.org.

All of the annual Section Meetings of the Geological Society of America (GSA) have been cancelled. Please check https://www.geosociety.org/ for more information. Some meetings are exploring virtual options.

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List of Upcoming Cave and Karst Meetings

If you are interested in any of the following events, contact them directly to learn if they are still planned as announced below.

6)International Course and Field Seminar: Characterization and Engineering of Karst Aquifers, 11-20 June 2020 (Žabljak-Durmitor Mt., Virpazar-Skadar Lake in Montenegro, and in Trebinje in Bosnia & Herzegovina),http://www.karst.edu.rs.

7)28th International Karstological School “Classical Karst”: Regional Karstology - Local and General Aspects, 15-19 June 2020 (Postojna, Slovenia), https://iks.zrc-sazu.si/en/